History Main / ZillionDollarBill

* The British treasury printed nine £1 million banknotes after WWII. They served as aid payments to Europe after the war. According to OldMoney (and Website/TheOtherWiki), they still do print notes of values £1 million (giants) and £100 million (titans) - but these serve to [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21145103 guarantee]] the Scottish and Northern Irish commercial banks and never enter consumer circulation.

* Creator/MarkTwain wrote a story called ''The Million-Pound Note'' in which a man lost in England is given a million-pound note by an eccentric rich man he has just met. He can't actually SPEND it, since no one can make change, but showing it everywhere is enough to let him open a lot of lines of credit. It turns out [[spoiler:the whole thing was a bet on what a foreigner lost in a strange land with nothing to his name but a million-pound note would actually DO]]. It was made into [[Film/TheMillionPoundNote a classic film]] in 1954. It was also made into a WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck story. Also done in the 1994 movie ''A Million to Juan''.

** Between 1929 and 1945, the American government printed paper money in denominations going up to $10,000 bills that were actually released into circulation, and $100,000 bills used for interbank transfers (and exclusively for the twelve Federal Reserve Banks at that). See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denominations_of_United_States_currency this article]] at Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}. The U.S. Treasury also stopped producing large bills to make it difficult for criminals to move large sums of cash. $1,000,000 in $100 bills weighs about 20 lbs. and takes up over 600 cubic inches of space - not something you can easily hide when passing through security. A 2018 research paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimated that 80% of all U.S. $100 bills are outside of the U.S., a significant amount in the hands of organized criminals because it is a commonly-accepted currency in a denomination just high enough to be reasonably portable, but just low enough so as not to arouse excessive suspicion when spent.

* In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint created a single [[http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/million-dollar-coin-1600006#.U_2JoRB_TFI gold million dollar coin]], a scaled up version of their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Gold_Maple_Leaf Gold Maple Leaf]] bullion coin simply referred to as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Maple_Leaf Big Maple Leaf]], purely as a demonstration of their ability to make gold coins with greater purity than anyone had achieved before. Since it was meant as a showpiece rather than actual currency or even bullion, they actually made it with what was at the time roughly a million dollar's worth of gold, and thus the coin weighs in at a whopping 100 kg and is similar in diameter to a large pizza. Since then, demand from a few ludicrously rich investors led them to make 5 more of the $1 million coins and sell them (one was put on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto).

* The wrecked plane full of cash in ''Film/ASimplePlan''. Of course, in this case it brings those who find it nothing but misery and [[spoiler: ends up being burnt so the police cannot trace any of the serial numbers back]].

* The eponymous dragon in Peter F. Hamilton's ''Literature/FallenDragon''. In a subversion, the small community benefiting from its advanced technology attempts [[spoiler: to hijack a starship to return it to its own kind. In a brilliant sucker punch, the dragon is as valuable to its own kind as a single sperm is to us.]]

* Creator/MarkTwain wrote a story called ''The Million-Pound Note'' in which a man lost in England is given a million-pound note by an eccentric rich man he has just met. He can't actually SPEND it, since no one can make change, but showing it everywhere is enough to let him open a lot of lines of credit. It turns out [[spoiler: the whole thing was a bet on what a foreigner lost in a strange land with nothing to his name but a million-pound note would actually DO]]. It was made into [[Film/TheMillionPoundNote a classic film]] in 1954. It was also made into a WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck story. Also done in the 1994 movie ''A Million to Juan''.

* In ''Literature/TheKalevala'' -- which is a book filled with Finnish myths -- the skillful blacksmith Ilmarinen forges a device that gives its owner three things to guarantee wealth and health in one's family: Salt and grain so that food will never run out and gold so that there will always be money. When it's ready, he offers it to Pohjan Akka (who is an evil witch) in exchange for her beautiful daughter he has fallen in love with. This device -- called TheSampo -- later becomes the MacGuffin that everyone wants. [[spoiler: And like every ZillionDollarBill, it is accidentally destroyed, when it falls into the sea and breaks into pieces during the battle for it.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' the [[MacGuffin Philosopher's Legacy]] is a microfilm containing bank information for $100 billion US, more than the real-world US budget at the time. Justified, as it is a slush fund created by ''all'' the Allies pooling their resources to fight the Axis. [[spoiler:The Legacy is recovered and distributed between three world powers; most of it eventually falls into the hands of the Patriots]].

* During the Tokugawa era in Japan, there existed a large gold coin called ''Ōban'' with a weight of 165 grams of ~85% gold, equivalent to ten ''Ryo'' — a monetary unit corresponding to the cost of one ''Koku'' (or ~220 liters/200 kg) of rice, an amount consumed by a person in a year. Thus, ''Ōban'' was basically the equivalent of 2 tons of rice. Today its worth in the gold alone would be ~$7000, or, given the current bulk price of quality Japanese rice of ~$5 per kilo, $10000.

* The British treasury printed nine £1 million banknotes after WWII. They served as aid payments to Europe after the war. According to OldMoney (and Wiki/TheOtherWiki), they still do print notes of values £1 million (giants) and £100 million (titans) - but these serve to [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21145103 guarantee]] the Scottish and Northern Irish commercial banks and never enter consumer circulation.

* [[{{Unobtainium}} Adamantine]] in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''; a single sword or piece of jewellery made from it can buy out an entire merchant caravan. Considering it can be used to make {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s and NighInvulnerable armour that weigh about as much as ''styrofoam'' this is very much justified, even if your dwarves didn't have to brave the [[EverybodyKnewAlready "Hidden" Fun Stuff]] to get their hands on some.

** In the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E9MrPlow Mr. Plow]]", Homer gets rival plowman Barney Gumble to spend the day dragging his plow up a mountain with the promise of a ten thousand dollar bill. When asked which president is on it, he claims, "''All of them. They're having a party. Jimmy Carter has passed out on the couch.''" [[note]]The actual ten-thousand dollar bill features Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, and hasn't been in cicrulation for decades.[[/note]][[TheDitz Barney]] is so impressed that he leaves immediately, abandoning his hot tub with Music/LindaRonstadt.

* The Portrait of Madison in Creator/RaymondChandler's ''Literature/PhilipMarlowe'' novel ''Literature/TheLongGoodbye''. Sure, it's only $5,000 -- but where are you going to spend that in [[TheFifties the 1950s]]?[[note]]Adjusted for inflation, US$ 5,000 from 1953 are the equivalent of almost US$ 48,000 in 2020 money.[[/note]]

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' [[{{OVA}} direct-to-video movie]] ''WesternAnimation/WakkosWish'', where a ''ha' penny'' gets this role. However, the town of Acme Falls has fallen on such hard times, all it takes is two of them to save the town from soul crushing poverty and restore it to "as close to perfect as possible". It would be perfect, but... ''[[EveryoneHatesMimes the mime. THE MIME]]''.
** It really was just one coin of low value, but the stimulus this generated in the local economy created a snowball effect, restoring consumer confidence - all according to real life economic principles!

* In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint created a single [[http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/million-dollar-coin-1600006#.U_2JoRB_TFI gold million dollar coin]], a scaled up version of their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Gold_Maple_Leaf Gold Maple Leaf]] bullion coin simply referred to as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Maple_Leaf Big Maple Leaf]], purely as a demonstration of their ability to make gold coins with greater purity than anyone had achieved before. Since it was meant as a showpiece rather than actual currency or even bullion, they actually made it with roughly a million dollar's worth of gold (at least at the time, gold price is an ever-changing thing) and thus the coin weighs in at a whopping 100 kg and is similar in diameter to a large pizza. Since then, demand from a few ludicrously rich investors led them to make 5 more of the $1 million coins and sell them (one was put on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto).

* [[WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017 The 2017 Ducktales reboot]]'s episode ''Glomtales!'' shows Mark Beaks dabbling in cryptoeconomy by creating the "Beakscoin", which is allegedly [[ArtisticLicenceEconomics "worth more than every dollar in the world combined"]].

* The British treasury printed nine £1 million banknotes after WWII. They served as aid payments to Europe after the war. According to OldMoney (and Wiki/TheOtherWiki), they still do print notes of values £1 million (giants) and £100 million (titans) - but these serve to guarantee the Scottish national banks and never enter consumer circulation.

** Germany before the Euro had 1,000DM, 2,000DM and 5,000DM bills, as well as a 5DM bill in addition to the more common 5DM coin. The Euro has neither the equivalent coin nor those bills. The 500€ note was originally proposed to please Germany due to the loss of these higher values; the originally slated higher denomination bill was the 200€ note.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had "The Trouble with Trillions", where Homer finds out that Montgomery Burns had a trillion-dollar bill in his possession. It was originally printed by the American Government to give to the governments of Europe to pay for damages from WWII, but Monty stole it. It's not quite a ''zillion'' dollars, but it's enough, at least [[OutOfCharacterMoment as Lisa said]] for some dune buggies.

[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TrillionDollarBill_7890.png]]]]

* One-Eyed Willy's treasure in the movie ''Film/TheGoonies''. Most of the treasure is lost completely, but the handful of gems that Mikey manages to hold onto is enough to save the kids' neighborhood from being turned into a country club.

* Due to hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, the regime eventually printed bills as high as $Z 100 ''trillion''. They eventually gave up entirely, and the country now uses several foreign currencies (mostly the U.S. dollar).
* During the hyperinflation in Germany during the Weimar Republic, this was the norm for currency, especially around 1922-25. Currency denomination in the billions was not uncommon at the time. There is one story, possibly apocryphal, of a man who wheeled trillions of marks in a wheelbarrow to deposit; as he stopped in, the wheelbarrow was stolen, but the stacks of by-then-worthless cash were left on the street. Almost any collectors' stamp store will have scads of 20-''billion''-mark postage stamps from the time, most of them uncancelled (as they were made obsolete by the mounting inflation shortly after they were issued and most people never bothered using them). You sometimes see envelopes completely covered--back and front--in stamps except for a tiny square of space to write in the address, those are worth a lot of cash.
* Shortly after World War II, Hungary experienced its own hyperinflation crisis, which culminated in the highest denomination bill ever printed, the 100 Million B-Pengo. The "B" stands for "billion", so its value was 100 million billion pengo. That's 100 '''quintillion''' (100,000,000,000,000,000,000).

* While nowhere near the other hyperinflation crises, the situation of Polish Zloty in the early 90s was still problematic. With a loaf of bread costing around 10.000 Zloty, the "denomination" was necessary. As a result, the New Polish Zloty (PLN) took the place of the "old Polish Zloty", 1 PLN replacing every 10.000 zł.

* Creator/MarkTwain wrote a story called ''The Million-Pound Note'' in which a man lost in England is given a million-pound note by an eccentric rich man he has just met. He can't actually SPEND it, since no one can make change, but showing it everywhere is enough to let him open a lot of lines of credit. It turns out [[spoiler: the whole thing was a bet on what a foreigner lost in a strange land with nothing to his name but a million-pound note would actually DO]]. It was made into [[Film/TheMillionPoundNote a classic film]] in 1954. It was also made into a DonaldDuck story. Also done in the 1994 movie ''A Million to Juan''.

* In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint created a single gold [[http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/million-dollar-coin-1600006#.U_2JoRB_TFI million dollar coin]] purely as a demonstration of their ability to make gold coins with greater purity than anyone had achieved before. Since it was meant as a showpiece rather than actual currency or even bullion, they actually made it with roughly a million dollar's worth of gold (at least at the time, gold price is an ever-changing thing) and thus the coin weighs in at a whopping 100 kg and is similar in diameter to a large pizza. Since then, demand from a few ludicrously rich investors led them to make 5 more of the $1 million coins and sell them (one was put on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto).

** One story has him compete with Duckefeller for such a bill at an auction. Things get heated, with Duckefeller placing a final WhammyBid, and Scrooge taking the loss remarkably well... until he reminds everyone that the bids passed the bill's actual value long ago (Duckefeller's final bid was double the bill's value).

Compare ImpossiblyCoolWealth. In the future, such a bill would be worth nothing thanks to RidiculousFutureInflation. An example of ArtisticLicenseEconomics on the few occasions it can actually be used in the story, as it would immediately destroy any economy it was introduced to in a realistic setting — if anyone would actually take it, which smarter writers will often use as a plot point. Compare to AMacGuffinFullOfMoney.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[spoiler: Quentin Trembly (the eighth-and-a-half U.S. President)]] gives Dipper the "less than worthless" $-12 bill at the end of of the episode "Irrational Treasure".

A MacGuffin of great monetary value (though normally [[UndisclosedFunds never specifically stated]]), so great that it could make anyone or any community rich and prosperous, and will never go hungry again. Naturally, it's almost always destroyed, lost, or otherwise gotten rid of at the end of the plot.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' the [[MacGuffin Philosopher's Legacy]] is a microfilm containing bank information for $100 billion US, more than the real-world US budget at the time. Justified as a slush fund created by ''all'' the Allies pooling their resources to fight the Axis. [[spoiler:The Legacy is recovered and distributed between three world powers; most of it eventually falls into the hands of the Patriots]].

* [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/trillion-dollar-coin-solution_n_2426333.html The trillion dollar coin idea]], a proposal to solve an impended debt ceiling crisis by minting a $1 trillion platinum coin, exploiting the fact that by law the US Mint can make platinum coins (and ''only'' platinum coins) with any face value it sees fit and without regard to the bullion value of the platinum. All other types of coins are strictly regulated by acts of Congress, but for whatever reason the Mint was given carte blanche to do as it pleases with regard to platinum. Ultimately, Congress backed down from its threat to let the debt ceiling be breached (and thereby cause the United States to go into default for the first time in history), and nothing more has been heard of the hypothetical $1 trillion coin.